Konstitutionalisierung der Wirtschaftsordnung?: Korreferat

The plea to lay down the social market economy in the constitution raises the question of whether such a constitutionalisation of the economic order is indeed necessary. The experience of the last 70 years shows, however, that the social market economy has firmly established itself even without such constitutional safeguard. Conversely, the deletion of the article on socialization is not necessary either, because this constitutional norm has never been applied to date, and because the restrictions of Article 14 of the German ‘Grundgesetz’ apply to property encroachments anyway. The hope for more clarity is also likely to be deceptive, because new legal or constitutional concepts are naturally more vague than more traditional concepts. The assertion that the proposed new regulation improves individual legal protection is equally wrong. The proposal of a new Article 15 of the ‘Grundgesetz’ is formulated as a mere determination of a state objective, not as an individual fundamental right. Equally incorrect is the statement that the guarantees of the EU Treaties would not protect the citizen against encroachments by his own government. On the contrary, European fundamental freedoms have proved to be a powerful instrument of liberalisation. An argument in favour of laying down the social market economy in the ‘Grundgesetz’ is at least that this would undoubtedly make it part of its objective order of values.